Will 'Book of Mormon' Fly in the Heartland?

In the Broadway musical "The Book of Mormon," Mormon missionary Elder Price wants the church to send him to sunny Orlando, Fla., to spread his faith. Instead he's shipped off to Uganda.

Like Elder Price, the road tour of "The Book of Mormon," set to kick off this August, won't be going to Orlando—or anywhere in the South—just yet. On the first leg of the tour, the show will largely be sticking to the coasts and a handful of major Midwestern cities.

The show, with its profanity-laced songs and irreverent take on religion and poverty, has grossed more than $90 million on Broadway and picked up nine Tony awards. The racy material will stay unchanged for the tour, say sources close to the show. But will it work in the heartland?

During the tour's first year, the producers, Scott Rudin and Anne Garefino, are taking the show primarily to large cities with fairly affluent theater audiences. They are also "underbooking" the show—playing for only a few weeks in most locations—to keep supply low and demand high, so they can come back over and over, according to a person familiar with the strategy. The tour's first run will play in 16 cities for a year starting in August, plus an open-ended show in Chicago. A second season is now being booked.

Megahits like "Wicked" and "Les Misérables" employed the same tactic, maximizing sales early in strong cities, and staying fewer weeks to increase hype. "Wicked," with two national tours, still sells to full houses after seven years on the road.

ENLARGE

A scene from the Broadway production.
Sipa Press/Associated Press

The road strategy for "Mormon" is similar to the approach that Mr. Rudin and Ms. Garefino employ in New York, where the musical, created by Matt Stone, Trey Parker and Robert Lopez, plays at the relatively small, 1,066-seat Eugene O'Neill theater. A pair of seats to a weekend performance isn't available at face value until April 21, according to the "Mormon" website. Mr. Rudin and Ms. Garefino declined to comment.

So far, the rollout seems to be working. The 24 performances booked for Denver, where the tour is opening, sold out in five hours, according to a ticketing agent at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Some presenters that have "Mormon" on their schedule say they have seen a spike in subscriber-based season-ticket sales.

"Our subscriptions are up from last year at this time, and we like to think it's from 'Book of Mormon,' " says
Al Nocciolino,
president of NAC Entertainment, which has booked "Mormon" in Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y. In Buffalo, ticket prices range from $35 to $75, although top prices could exceed $100 in some cities. A regular seat at the Eugene O'Neill runs around $159.

Regional theater owners and presenters of Broadway shows on the road will be watching the fate of "The Book of Mormon" tour closely. "The road," as the Broadway touring circuit is known, hasn't had a major hit in several years. Not since "Jersey Boys" hit the heartland in 2006 has the country had a blockbuster, says longtime Broadway producer Thomas Viertel. The 2010-11 season grossed approximately $804 million on the road, down from $947 million the year prior, although those figures don't reflect shows that use actors not in the Actors' Equity union.

In keeping tickets "tight," the "Mormon" producers are hoping to avoid the fate of a show like "The Producers." That show was a huge success in New York but its heavily booked tours ultimately fizzled when it left town.

More recently, a "Billy Elliot" tour had to close after one year because it couldn't sell enough tickets to fill an overbooked schedule. The road show was eventually revamped and is now playing shorter runs.

Despite promising early sales, "Mormon" still faces some built-in challenges: It's not a show for the whole family, and religious theatergoers may find it offensive. While "The Lion King" began its first national tour in Texas and Florida, "Mormon" will not hit Southern cities in its first season, though a knowledgable person in the theater industry says it will head to the South next year.

John Ballard, a Broadway presenter in Salt Lake City, thinks the show will be a hit even in the heart of Mormon country. Mr. Ballard's company, MagicSpace Entertainment, is in talks to bring "Book of Mormon" to a Salt Lake theater for two weeks in the fall of 2013.

Mr. Ballard says he always ensures conservative audience members are fully aware of a show's content by sending out emails with descriptions of the plot and printing warnings in the theater's literature. He also posts warnings about the material on theater doors.

"There is no way of getting around its contents, which to many in the Latter-day Saints community will be horrendous, shocking, profane, blasphemous, and something that they will want nothing to do with," Mr. Ballard said.

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